June 13, 2013

The extreme fundamentalists have convinced the members of Congress, and specifically the House of Representatives, that Mikey Weinstein and MRFF are anti-Christian activists despite the fact that over 96% of their clients are indeed Christian service members.

(a) NOTICE.— (1) IN GENERAL.—The Department of Defense shall provide to the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate advance written notice of any meeting to be held between Department employees and civilians for the purpose of writing, revising, issuing, implementing, enforcing, or seeking advice, input, or counsel regarding military policy related to religious liberty. (2) CONTENTS OF NOTICE.—Notice provided under paragraph (1) shall include information on the time, date, location, and anticipated attendees of the meeting and information on who initiated the meeting. (3) VERBAL NOTICE.—If a meeting to which this subsection applies is scheduled less than 24 hours in advance of the meeting, the notice requirement under paragraph (1) may be satisfied by a phone call if Committee staff provide verbal confirmation of receipt of the notice.

(b) REPORTS.— Not later than 72 hours after the conclusion of a meeting to which subsection (a) applies, the Secretary of Defense shall submit to the Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Armed Services of the Senate a report on the meeting, which shall include information on the time, date, location, duration, and attendees of the meeting and information on who initiated the meeting.

Now all this sounds rather ambiguous if it weren’t specifically directed towards one man: Mikey Weinstein.

I couldn’t believe it, myself, when I laid eyes on that. On the Congressman’s page it directly points out that it is going after the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Mikey Weinstein. In fact the demonization goes even further with a 25-list about the ‘hate speech’ that is mongered by Mikey. There are even links.

The only problem with this? The ‘hate speech’ is cherry-picked (much like this Congressman probably does with his own bible) and half the links come from hate-sites. In fact one is from a now-defunct blog that was being operated by a Christian bully in uniform. It was shut down by the Air Force because of its putrid content and hateful degrading speech. But I digress….

Read the congressman’s website here for yourself. If he decides to edit or delete any of his webpage I have saved a copy of it and screenshot the entire thing. I’ll just repost it someplace else to make sure he doesn’t try and distance himself from his idiocy.

What in the actual fu….

Yeah. That was my friend’s response. What is the reason for this? Quite simply this dumb Congressman doesn’t know the Constitution or the Uniform Code of Military Justice. For a long time the Fundamentalist Christians didn’t either. But they are ALL learning now thanks in large part to the efforts of MRFF and American Atheists (for whom I work). Let’s see what Representative Huelskamp had to say about this

So when the legislation from NDAA 2013 was passed it appears that they actually started enforcing religious equality across the different branches of the military. This moronic Congressman is now angry that they are….

following the law!

So now in an attempt to better understand why the “Christian Taliban” are being stamped out — they are hateful bigots and extremists — he wants a letter every time Mikey (or I — or pretty much anyone) talk(s) to any member of the Pentagon about religious matters.

The concern is whether or not these acts will pressure the officials to stop meeting with Mikey and others, and if they will allow the fundamentalists to continue with their message of hate. This Congressman doesn’t seem to understand that when you take an oath to serve your nation you are giving up some of your rights. You no longer have the right to spout hateful speech. You no longer have the right to discriminate. Yes, that may be a right that civilians have. But you give that up. Your freedom of speech is no longer unfettered. Your freedom to proselytize and attempt to convert people by coercion is gone. You can believe and live however you want as long as it brings no harm to others. But you have to be accepting and acknowledging of others.

@3 – Neil, I think you’re pretty safe. Congressmen were never part of your chain of command, first off. Secondly, if you’re retired, then (unless you commit a crime such as issuing death threats) what are they going to do to you? You’ve already retired.

Hell, I’m an active duty officer and I have no compunction about speaking my mind where government is concerned. I just don’t disrespect anyone in my chain of command, nor do I make subversive statements. As private citizens, we have the right to speak our minds so long as we don’t violate the UCMJ.

And I’m not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Christian Fighter Pilot either.